a week from now, my long weekend in virginia will have come to an end… likely driving back home so I can get to work on time for tuesday. thanks, columbus… or erikson, or whoever first got here to settle in. trans-siberian asians or whatever proto-natives first roamed the banks to see boats coming to greet them.

today went pretty well, dear journal. regular length workday, a little flippin` pizza special and a lot of processes put in place.

mafia ii was fun, but I`m still really caught up in red dead redemption. zombie western coming this month has me quite enthused to continue, too.

brisk day today – rainy and in the 40s-50s.

some kids playing the fool on the other side of the train… not moldy scented today, but the conversations seem louder.

at chinatown now.. major switch from kids to hipsters.

not nearly so crowded today… but l`enfant station is still yet to come.

— There’s a ton of stories this morning about some bright flashes of light and booming noises coming from the skies over eastern Virginia, parts of Maryland and North Carolina. The Richmond Times Dispatch reports that the National Weather Service’s Wakefield station’s phone was "ringing off the hook" last night after around 9:45 p.m., as residents frantically called in to report flashing, bright lights and in some places, an explosion-like sound. No immediate explanation came from the NWS, but a team is now investigating what might have caused the fiery flashes. WTOP has a report that suggests that the phenomenon was most likely a fireball, which can occur when a piece of meteor rock enters the Earth’s atmosphere.

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SWAT in Maryland update – via Cheye Calvo –

I am very pleased to announce that, on Saturday, the Maryland House of Delegates passed HB 1267, the SWAT team oversight legislation, by a 126-9 vote. The bill will require law enforcement agencies with SWAT teams to report every six months to civilian authorities on the number, general location, purpose, authorization, and results of SWAT deployments. It also directs the Governor’s Office of Crime Control and Prevention to analyze the information and issue an annual report on SWAT team deployments in the state.

The Senate passed a companion bill 43-0 on March 19. In both cases, lawmakers took strong action following emotional testimony in committee by numerous victims of careless or inappropriate SWAT deployments. The point was clearly made that what happened to my family was not an anomaly, nor is the problem limited to Prince George’s County.

Differences between the two bills about whether to include a sunset provision and the start date of the legislation will need to be resolved in a conference committee over the next couple weeks before the General Assembly convenes. However, it is looking quite likely that we will be able to send a bill requiring monitoring of SWAT team deployments to the Governor for his signature within the next few weeks.

The House of Delegates passed the legislation on Saturday, which happened to be my 38th birthday. This is truly the best birthday present I could have asked for!

friday morning on the green line. one of the older, dirtier trains. i’m at abot mt vernon square, and the whole cabin is scented like cupcakes – a pleasant change from the expected "herd of goat" fragrance usually found on the older carpeted cars.

In the first case to review the government’s secret evidence for holding a detainee at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, a federal appeals court found that accusations against a Muslim from western China held for more than six years were based on bare and unverifiable claims. The unclassified parts of the decision were released on Monday.

With some derision for the Bush administration’s arguments, a three-judge panel said the government contended that its accusations against the detainee should be accepted as true because they had been repeated in at least three secret documents.

The court compared that to the absurd declaration of a character in the Lewis Carroll poem “The Hunting of the Snark”: “I have said it thrice: What I tell you three times is true.”

Numerous human rights violations have taken place in China because of the Olympics, according to an Amnesty International report. In 2006, Beijing implemented a detention without trial scheme called “Re-education Through Labor” which targets people who have committed minor offenses and are forced to work long hours and can be detained for 4 years. Concerns over the games also include the potential for boycotts from pro-Tibetan organizations such as Students for a Free Tibet as well as from organizations such as Amnesty International upset with China’s involvement in the crisis in Darfur.

Biggest tricks for me to avoid would be be –

Johnson and Johnson – very big company – not sure if we could dodge every tendril. I can rattle off at least 5 of those items in our home right now.

GE – everywhere, also owns a ton of stuff – (including TiVo, Universal Studios, and USA network, home of Psych)

Coca-cola – everywhere, but avoidable if you take note of what you’re drinking, including water.

Visa – well, that’s my bank’s debit card, and almost every place on the planet takes it… so, unless I want to live and trade with cash-only businesses, that’s a deal breaker. Too big to defeat.

Items of little to no difficulty –

McDonalds – not hard for me to miss out on – we only ever go for shamrock shakes or pumpkin at halloween. Easily avoided.

Samsung / Panasonic – easy peasy. I get 99% of my electronics from other sources, though our tv is a samsung right now.

VW? Awww… you guys let me down. Would I have to boycott playing punch-buggy?

Adidas – no problem missing out on them.

UPS – I do use them on occasion, but there are alternatives.

Snickers, Tsingtao, and Budwiser – I can do without all of those.

Kodak – plenty of other options there, too, but they’re in a lot of places. depending on the extremism, some might want to forego any book that used kodak photography or processes. Movies, etc.They are teamed with Motorola and Lexar, for that matter.

Who can say? I won’t be that extreme, but sometimes I feel that I should.

‘Zero’ chance lottery tickets stun some players – Through a request filed under the Freedom of Information Act, Fishwick’s firm was able to obtain records that showed the Virginia State Lottery sold $85 million in tickets for which no top prize was available.

Had a lovely time shopping for Alan’s b’day present wrapping after my standard morning’s shots. Got a haircut (contrary to photo, I don’t plan on gelling it into a faux-hawk regularly), Lunched at Ledo’s, but I think the stop off at *$ for a little coffee drink took gave BHK a bit of sourbelly, so we headed home, napped and listened to the gumball-sized hail fall unexpectedly from the sky. (There were also tornado warnings, but no sign of that.)

The weather eased while we waited for the in-laws to get ready for the party… we were aiming for a launch time of about 5pm, and we left circa 6:40. Fortunately, we took Chris’s eternal case of time dilation into account, so we got there only about 10 minutes late.

Alan’s party was nice – quite a diverse group of people there, drunks and non-drunks – I finally got to meet JC and Mamacita, but Mamacita didn’t bring her Chihuahua with – maybe next time. I’d say the little house had about 50 people in it at prime time – they hired a doorman, bartender, and a few waiters – but it was a truly casual and pleasant outing… not a lot of seating, but standing wasn’t bad, thanks to my epidural earlier in the week.

He didn’t open his goodies – his true b’day is Sunday… I imagine he’ll like the blooming tea.

Tina and Matt were there – looks like Matt’s losing some weight – Good for him!

I think tonight is Thai night or is that tomorrow? Or did we decide to go with zucchini? Ah well, it’ll be a winner of a night, no matter what.

Had tasty leftover thai soup for lunch… maybe leftover pizza from last night for dinner? I guess I’ll know once I get home… I imagine my ride’ll be here soon! [edit: had a huge salad for dinner, and rounded it out with the remainder of the Thai soup. Pizza in box for tomorrow!]

Serious cough this morning – pollen? Faded as we left North Beach. [edit: didn’t return when I got back home – woodsmoke, perhaps?]

Watched House and Hell’s Kitchen – we’re about 3 episodes from the end on each. I can’t get over how abusive Ramsey is on that show – I’ve seen him far nicer to other folks, so I’m guessing it’s mostly an act. House wasn’t up to usual snuff… (the sopa opera star one) I guess ever season has to have the weak episode here and again.

It seems as though LifeLock isn’t as secure as Todd Davis makes it out. According to a LifeLock spokesman, his identity has been stolen. For two years, Davis has been daring hackers to steal his ID. Looks like he got what he wanted. CNN reports: ‘Now, LifeLock customers in Maryland, New Jersey and West Virginia are suing Davis, claiming his service didn’t work as promised and he knew it wouldn’t, because the service had failed even him.’

Whenever I think of James Garner, I think of three things. (usually in this order)

Discovered a few of the likely many benefits of the SQL UNION command. I’m surprised I’ve never used it until this week. I am also surprised that it defaults to DISTINCT, rather than ALL that seems counter-intuitive, but I’ll take it.

Everyone on the bus was wearing blue this morning. No reds, golds or oranges… blue, with black or white, in varying shades.

Except me. I had a pair of tan/brown pants, brown shoes, white shirt with a smattering of black, gray, and reddish brown stripes.

Half of me wondered if I got on the right vehicle; the other half wondered why I didn’t get the memo.

I don’t mind – I come home to a colorful crew with BHK at the helm.

It seems that Pye prefers Newtcam, and newt prefers to be on Pyecam. (Newt likes the little window ledge upstairs…Pye likes the bed upstairs. They both seem to duel over the office and living room windows.

DC is 5th in road rage. Ha… Miami is #1 ! Maybe that’s why I don’t so bent out of shape on the beltway. DC, see also re:FL. Me, I’m pleased as punch to be where I am.

Off to Arlington, VA (right near Ballston) for a NetForum Users Group meeting on Friday – pretty much all day long. I wonder if there’s anything BHK and I would like to do in that environment, after the meeting is over? I figure I’ll head home, unless we need to stop off at the Pentagon for something – which I doubt.

This weekend plans include (in varying degrees of probability, but all of them nifty):

AardvarkEm’s ballet recitalArtomatic

Those that aren’t hit this weekend, will be hit in the future, to be sure.

The Comic Book Script Archive … interesting list of scripts from a ton of authors… From the Moore’s intro to the Killing Joke script: ‘I want you to feel as comfortable and unrestricted as possible during the several months of your bitterly brief mortal lifespan that you’ll spend working on this job, so just lay back and mellow out. Take your shoes and socks off. Fiddle around in between your toes. Nobody cares.’

Semi-related – cool list of icons! I wonder how many I’ll see in use over the next couple of months?

FontStruct is an awesomely simple online font creation tool. Just draw on a grid with simple Photoshop-like tools, save, and download a TrueType version of the fonts you’ve just created. Hmm.. If only I had a graphics tablet, I could make a font of my handwriting, as messy as that might be.

Lunar Eclipse last night was lovely… clear skies, snowy ground and crisp air. A good time to be outside and looking at the sky, if just for a moment.

Somebody made a sacrifice somewhere, and the moon came back. Next time, the gods won’t be so kind!

Warnings about ice tomorrow… I may get a long weekend… (if my internet and power goes out… or I may get to work form home!) Then again, I may get to go into the office that’s mostly empty, and get a lot of work done there, too. I suspect any or all will be win.

Lovely leftover dinner tonight… last of the mexican bake while BHK and I watch The Last Legion. I think that she liked it more than I did… How’d they get Mr. Darcy, Ghandi and the Mistress of the spices together to make this flick? Apparently the Goths were vikings with scottish accents.

(To break it down further 1100 people asked – Among Republicans (29% of adults registered to vote in the survey), 45% approve of the way Bush is handling his job and 50% disapprove. Among Democrats (43% of adults registered to vote in the survey), 1% approve and 99% disapprove of the way Bush is handling his job. Among independents (28% of adults registered to vote in the survey), 17% approve and 75% disapprove of the way Bush is handling his job as president.)

I’ve neglected to mention that we watched the pilot for the new Knight Rider series.

It was only worth it for the Hoff cameo, and even that was pretty weak. Thank goodness for tivo and fast forward.

Psych was a little too scooby-doo for me last night… but watching the outtake of them singing “Somebody’s Watching Me” made it more than worth it. I also saw the graduation episode of Kim Possible. Nice that Drakken has some utility after all.

A giant frog that hopped around Madagascar 65–70 million years ago has been discovered.

Fossil fragments show that the frog, called Beelzebufo ampinga, could have measured 20 centimetres across its squat head, and probably more than 40 centimetres from snout to tail. The researchers nicknamed the monstrous beast ‘the frog from hell’; the official name comes from one of the many names for the devil (Beelzebub) and the Latin for ‘toad’ (bufo).

This college grad decided to live on the streets with just $25 and a gym bag to see if he could make it without any of the trappings of his upbringing, privileges, or contacts. After 10 months, he was moving into an apartment, bought a pickup truck, and had a savings of around $5,000. The point of the story is supposed to be that people are poor because they have bad attitudes. Which is technically true, but maybe he should do an experiment to see what being born poor will do for your “positive outlook.” – via consumerist.

Add a few more elements, like mental / physical health plus his gender, age and skin tone into the mix, and I’d be interested to see how much harder it’d be to get by if you changed variables around. I don’t like the implication that “anyone could do it”.

I also wonder who was left out of the shelter he stayed in for the first few months of his experiment? Did they go hungry as a result? Sleep on the street?

The more I think about it, the more I’d like to see him actually in the circumstances of hopelessness and fear being homeless can bring. I feel that knowing the safety net is there will give a false sense of confidence and comfort, too.

Anyone can go camping when they know full well that they could fix things with a phone call… how’s that song go?

You’ll never live like common people,you’ll never do what common people do,you’ll never fail like common people,you’ll never watch your life slide out of view,and dance and drink and screw,because there’s nothing else to do.

He got to bail due to a personal tragedy at home… who else is allowed that? It’s a lousy experiment when you can change the variables and conditions at whim.